Tuesday, 12 May 2015

People are often kind enough to ask how I
am.The answer is usually ‘OK’ or ‘Fine’.That is for the simple reason that if I’m not
OK I am unlikely to be communicating in any form. On average I have one or two ‘Good’
Days each week, a couple of Bad Days and the rest are Liveable With….Good,
of course, is a relative term.

I met some old friends recently and was
delighted to do so – on two counts.Firstly because I wanted to see them.Secondly because it was one of those days when I was well enough to keep
my appointment with them.I was picked
up by She-who-used to-organise-me and her partner.They enquired how I was and vice versa – we
all said ‘Fine’ with a laugh that indicated we all knew how each other really
was but were happy not to go into it.‘Fine’ covers a multitude of aches, pains and problems. I had some idea of her partner’s health
issues and they know mine so we didn’t need to go into detail or justify how we
were well enough that day to go visiting.

When we got to our destination a couple of
folk who hadn’t seen me for years commented how well I was looking.What do you do when someone says that? I was
very tempted to go into details as to all the things that were wrong with me
and how I was only there because it was a ‘Good’ day.However I refrained. I just smiled and
thanked them. It's what you do...

Saturday, 9 May 2015

This has to be one of my favourite days of the year.It's my younger daughter's birthday and the
garden is really springing into life as are all the hedgerows.

And I love the idea of it being Lost Sock Memorial Day.

It is also the day that the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairies was founded.

I know those two because of Messymimi’s super
blog. Despite its title the publisher of this book
(at the request of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Fairies) notes that no fairies were injured or killed in the
manufacturing process... Lady
Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book by Terry Jones, Brian Froud- A fairy
book that is the diary kept by Lady Cottington. Instead of pressing
flowers in it, she pressed fairies. Handwritten and handsomely bound,
this fairy book is as surprising as it is pleasing.

Monday, 4 May 2015

Saturday, 2 May 2015

For almost a century Huntley & Palmers
biscuit tins have been seen on the tea tables of well-to-do Brits. They came in many styles and with many different designs on them.

What few of
those biscuit-eating folk realized is that some of the tins contained a surprise... not in the
biscuits themselves, but in the illustration on the outside of the tin. Around 1970
a rogue employee, got his own back for his imminent redundancy by hiding
sexually explicit scenes in the illustrations.

This tin shows two dogs having
sex in the flowerbed. Reuters rather pruriently
prudishly blurred the cover of the tin in the picture accompanying their
article, so you can't see the dogs, but luckily an auctioneer’s has a picture
of the tin, in which you can just see the dogs. They're in the flowerbed on the
right-hand side.

There is also a pot of
jam with ‘shit’ on the label and two naked lovers in
a flowerbed.Production went on for a
number of years before these things were spotted and the picture changed.Nowadays the few surviving examples of the
tin can fetch up to £5,000 at auction.

Friday, 1 May 2015

When I moved into a flat in the 1980s I didn't have a television. A few Sundays I would walk round to Mum and Dad's in the evening and watch the Grand Prix highlights but other than that I didn't miss a TV. However, the TV licensing people would not believe I didn't have a TV and kept sending me notices threatening to prosecute me if I didn't buy my licence. I even had someone call at the door but I refused him admission on principle. That, of course made them more suspicious. After all, no one could live without a TV, could they? In the end they gave up when I threatened to take them to court for harassment.

In 2009 the German authorities went through a similar palaver. They sent St
Walpurga a demand for immediate payment of a television licence.Father Karl Terhorst of the Roman Catholic church
of St Walpurga in Ramsdorf was obliged to write and explain that St Walpurga
had died in in 779 and, so far as he knew, had never had a television!

About Me and my Blog

Thanks for stopping by! Would you like a cup of tea or coffee? And please, sit for a spell. If you enjoy my posts, please feel free to follow me or subscribe to my blog. This is a word verification free, family friendly blog, so everything I share here is for all ages. I am a happily married man in my late sixties who lives on the Wirral peninsula, near Liverpool, in the UK.

I'm a blogger - and nowadays that seems to be my main occupation. Rambles from My Chair is my main blog. I’m a retired local government executive - now studying how to survive a neurological disorder that gives me various problems but, hopefully, a whole new outlook on life and an increased sense of humour and perspective. There is a saying in Sweden "man måste vara frisk för att orka vara sjuk" ~ "you have to be well to cope with being ill"....

I enjoy most forms of communication and postcards are a special favourite. I used to blog as Scriptor Senex which is Latin for Old Writer but now Google only lets me post as John Edwards.

“He’s not so old. He’s just the age that he is, that’s all.” (Gerald Hammond)